Packaging

ABSTRACT

Cushioning unit for use inside a packing box includes a hollow carrier, such as a tube or box, for accommodating the article to be packed, and pieces of resilient material, such as foamed plastic, secured to exterior of the carrier and adapted to engage the inner surfaces of the box walls. Resilient pieces may include a main rectangular pad secured to each end of carrier, and auxiliary pads secured to center of each side of main pad, only the edges of the pads engaging the packing box walls. Alternatively, each main rectangular pad may have spaced pads secured to its sides, spaced pads making face-to-face contact with packing box walls. Resilient buffer may be secured to inner surface of each packing box end wall.

United States Patent 72] Inventor Thomas W. Meats Wilmslow, England [21] Appl. No. 801,716

[22] Filed Feb. 24, 1969 [45] Patented Mar. 30, 1971 Evans Bellhouse Limited Manchester, Lancashire, England [73] Assignee [54] PACKAGING 6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

FOREIGN PATENTS 763,408 12/1956 Great Britain 229/14(C) 832,101 4/1960 Great Britain..... 229/14(C) 916,967 l/l963 Great Britain 206/46(FCM) Primary Examiner-William T. Dixson, Jr. Attorney-Breitenfeld and Levine ABSTRACT: Cushioning unit for use inside a packing box includes a hollow carrier, such as a tube or box, for accommodating the article to be packed, and pieces of resilient material, such as foamed plastic, secured to exterior of the carrier and adapted to engage the inner surfaces of the box walls. Resilient pieces may include a main rectangular pad secured to each end of carrier, and auxiliary pads secured to center of each side of main pad, only the edges of the pads engaging the packing box walls. Alternatively, each main rectangular pad may have spaced pads secured to its sides, spaced pads making face-to-face contact with packing box walls. Resilient buffer may be secured to inner surface of each packing box end wall.

Patented March 30, 1971 3,572,574

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR:

manna u. "085 TroRMiYb Patented March 30; 1971 7 3,572,574

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 TIMI": u. Mums INVENTOR:

Patented March 30, 1971 3 Sheets-Sheet S INVENTOR:

The buffers 6 each consist of four pads 10 of foamed PACKAGING The invention relates to packaging and particularly to containers for fragile objects.

According to the invention there is provided a packaging unit adapted to be removably located in an outer box and comprising a carrier for the article to be packed and resilient support means secured to the carrier to support same at least at its ends, said resilient support means being adapted to engage walls of the box to resiliently resist movement of the carrier relative thereto.

Further according to the invention there is provided a container comprising an outer box, a packaging unit as aforedescribed, and resilient buffers at opposed ends of the unit.

Preferably, said buffers are secured to opposite ends of said carrier and said resilient support means comprise pads of foamed plastics material secured to the buffers, said carrier being a cardboard box.

Alternatively, said buffers may be mounted on opposed walls of the box, said carrier being a cardboard tube of desired cross-sectional shape, and saidresilient support means comprising pads of foamed plastics material mounted on the tube to form a generally cruciform structure at each end of the tube. Preferably also, said pads are arranged to have a reduced area of contact with the walls of the box, thereby reducing transmission of shock loads through the pads to the carrier, and producing a gradual or stepwise increase in resistance to movement of the carrier on impact. r I

If desired the carrier may be in the form of a box having a removable lid, there being a pad of foamed plastics material secured to the bottom of the box, and further pads secured to the top and sides of the lid thereby to produce a cruciform support on closing of the box. In this case the buffers may either be mounted on the ends of the removable unit or on the outer box.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a container according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section on the line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the central unit removed from the container;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing a modification;-

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a further modification; and

FIG. '7 is a perspective view of part of a still further modification.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, the container consists of an outer box 5, of rectangular shape in plan view and having resilient buffers 6 secured to the opposite end walls and a removable unit 7 housed between the buffers. The article to be packed (or the store) is located in a carrier incorporated in the unit plastics material, such as polyurethane foam, adhered to the end walls in the disposition shown in FIG. 2, and a cardboard face plate ll adhered to the pads 10. The pads 10 could, if desired, be replaced by a single pad or a different arrangement of multiple pads.

The unit 7 consists of a carrier in which the store, for example, an electronic valve, is housed, the carrier being in the form of an open-ended tube 12 of rectangular cross section as best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4. The length of the tube is slightly greater than the distance between the buffers in their relaxed position, so that the buffers require to be pressed apart slightly to enable insertion of the tube and thereafter resiliently secure the tube against movement in the direction of its own axis.

At each end of the tube 12 there is secured to each wall thereof a generally rectangular pad 13 of polyurethane foam thereby producing a cruciform structure when viewed end-on (see FIG. 3). The pads 13 are dimensioned such that their outermost edges M engage the bottom, side and top walls'of the box and thereby resiliently support the carrier generally centrally of the box.

It should be noted that the pads 13 do not have face-to-face contact with the walls of the box, but contact them edge-on. Thus on impact, the area of the pads which contacts the box walls gradually increases with deflection thereby producing a gradual increase in the resistance to movement and minimizing the transmission of shock loads to the store. This result would not be achieved if the pads were shaped to fit the corners of the box-or contacted the walls face-to-face. The partially deflected position adopted by the lower corners of the bottom pads under the weight of the store as illustrated in FIG. 3.

As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, additional foam rubber pads 15 are located between the twolower pads 13 to provide additional support. These may or may not'be required depending on the weight of the intended store.

The above described construction provides considerable protection of the store against impact caused by dropping or rough handling of the container. As the carrier is incorporated in a unit which is unattached to the box, if the latter is dropped on one end or corner, the lowermost buffer is compressed and the central unit moves with the buffer but is resiliently cushioned by it. At the same time, as the supporting pads 13 are secured to the unit, they move with it and the store is thus continuouslysupported throughout its length despite its bodily movement. If the box is dropped on its bottom or top or on one side, the pads 13 resiliently support the store and absorb the impact load in a gradual manner thereby minimizing transmission of the load to the store.

Many modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. One such modification is illustrated in FIG. 5. In this case the carrier is constructed in the form of a box having a base 20 to the bottom of which one pad 13 is secured and a lid 21 to the top and sides of which three further pads are secured. In this way the store may be placed in the box which is thereafter closed and fitted into the main container as before. The store in this case is completely enclosed and suitable packing may be inserted around it to prevent movement within the box 20, 21 if necessary. In this case also the buffers 6 may be secured to the removable unit 7 instead of to the walls of the box.

A further modification of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 6 of the drawings, which is a perspective view of a removable unit with the outerbox shown in broken lines. The article to be packed is located in a central carrier in the form of a box 25 supported by two end supports. Each end support comprises a square 26 of polyurethane foam rotated through 45 relative to the ends of the outer and inner boxes and having a pad 27 secured to each side of the square. The pads are dimensioned such that their corners engage the walls of the outer box 28, and hence the pads together with the corners of the squares 26 resiliently support the box 25 centrally of the outer box 28. The squares 26 are secured to the ends of the box 25 by a suitable adhesive. I

It will be appreciated that the end supports serve not only to provide transverse resilient support to the box 25, but also act as buffers to provide axial cushioning against shock loads. Further buffers could, of course, be located between the end supports and the end walls of the box, and such buffers could be secured to the end supports or the end walls as desired. Altematively, the thickness of the squares 26 may be varied to suit different loads. Again, in many applications it is advantageous to dimension the removable unit so that when it is located in the outer box the resilient material is slightly compressed. This prevents the unit and store from vibrating within the outer box.

In FIG. 6 the central box 25 is closed by fully overlapping flaps, but two half flaps could be used if desired. Moreover, the squares 26 and pads 27 could be integrally formed from a single piece of resilient material instead of the pads 27 being separate items glued to the squares 26.

A still further modification is shown in FIG. 7, wherein the end supports comprise substantially square pads 30 whose sides are parallel to those of the box, each edge being provided with a number of small pads 31 spaced apart to provide a castellated effect. The pads 31 engage the walls of the outer box in face-to-face contact but the castellations reduce the contact area compared with what it would be if the edges of the pads 30 engaged the box walls. This produces an efiect similar to the edge-on contact of previous embodiments except that the resistance to deflection increases in steps.

Various other modifications are possible. For example, the central carrier may be supported by pads throughout its length; foamed plastics other than polyurethane may be used and different densities of foam may be used for different store weights; other resilient cushioning material, such as rubberized hair, could be used; the various pads may be replaced by cushions of other shapes and sizes, for example circular supports coaxial with the carrier tube; the carrier may be of circular or other cross section to suit a particular store. It will be appreciated, of course, that a relatively small series of standard sized carriers can be used to accommodate stores of a large variety of shapes and sizes by use of appropriate packing within the carrier. In a further modification the pad 15 of the FIGS. 1 to 5 embodiments may be considerably larger so as to provide a cushioning effect against the wall of the box just after impact. The pads may, of course, be provided between other pairs of the pads 13 if desired.

Iclaim:

1. A container comprising an outer box having a noncircular cross-sectional shape, said outer box having sidewalls and two end walls, and a packaging unit within said outer box. said packaging unit comprising an inner box for accommodating an article to be packed, said inner box being spaced from all the walls of said outer box, and a buffer of resilient material secured to each end of said inner box, each said buffer engaging all the sidewalls and one end wall of said outer box, so that said buffers resist both axial and lateral movement of said inner box with respect to said outer box.

2. A container according to claim 1, in which said inner box has a hinged lid.

3. A container according to claim 1, wherein each of said end buffers comprises a main rectangular pad of resilient material and auxiliary rectangular pads of resilient material located midway of each side of the main pad, such that on appropriate location of the unit in said outer box the main and auxiliary pads contact walls of the outer box in edge-on contact.

4. A container according to claim 1, wherein each of said end buffers comprises a main rectangular pad of resilient material and a plurality of spaced auxiliary rectangular pads of resilient material secured to each edge of said main pad and adapted to contact walls of said outer box in face-to-face contact.

5. A container according to claim 3, wherein said main and auxiliary pads are integrally formed by cutting from a single piece of resilient material.

6. A container according to claim 4, wherein said main and auxiliary pads are integrally formed by cutting from a single piece of resilient material. 

1. A container comprising an outer box having a noncircular cross-sectional shape, said outer box having sidewalls and two end walls, and a packaging unit within said outer box, said packaging unit comprising an inner box for accommodating an article to be packed, said inner box being spaced from all the walls of said outer box, and a buffer of resilient material secured to each end of said inner box, each said buffer engaging all the sidewalls and one end wall of said outer box, so that said buffers resist both axial and lateral movement of said inner box with respect to said outer box.
 2. A container according to claim 1, in which said inner box has a hinged lid.
 3. A container according to claim 1, wherein each of said end buffers comprises a main rectangular pad of resilient material and auxiliary rectangular pads of resilient material located midway of each side of the main pad, such that on appropriate location of the unit in said outer box The main and auxiliary pads contact walls of the outer box in edge-on contact.
 4. A container according to claim 1, wherein each of said end buffers comprises a main rectangular pad of resilient material and a plurality of spaced auxiliary rectangular pads of resilient material secured to each edge of said main pad and adapted to contact walls of said outer box in face-to-face contact.
 5. A container according to claim 3, wherein said main and auxiliary pads are integrally formed by cutting from a single piece of resilient material.
 6. A container according to claim 4, wherein said main and auxiliary pads are integrally formed by cutting from a single piece of resilient material. 